Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why You Need a Representative | Torah | Numbers 20:14-29

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

What is God’s view of you? Are you good enough to go before God? Should you care about the role of high priests in the Old Testament? In today’s episode, Jensen uses Numbers 20:14-29 to discuss the importance of having a good high priest. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Numbers 20:14-29

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. If me or my sister ever wanted something growing up, like a trip to get ice cream or a movie night or anything that wasn't really part of the plan, we needed our parents to get on board. And because of that, we'd be really strategic. We'd pick whichever one of us was in the good graces of our parents to go and ask if we could do something fun. Usually this meant Jessica, my sister, went to ask and not me. I had a knack for getting in trouble. She had a knack for being quiet, kind, and calm. So more often than not, Jessica would go to our parents and be the one

to make our joint request, because we knew it had a better chance of getting a yes if it was her and not me asking. Now, I'll admit, this is a very rudimentary way to think about the high priests of Israel. But I do think it helps us conceptualize this role that is so foreign to our modern context. See, the people of Israel, they were a sinful people, people who complained, who worshipped idols, who neglected God's laws. And because God was holy, they needed someone who would go before them and be their representative. When God created the tabernacle and the laws and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, he put in place a high priest. He gave Moses a vision of this high priest on Mount Sinai, a man shining, wearing a sort of crown

and beautiful garments of clothing. This high priest was to be a symbol for the people. The high priest was the one who would represent the people to God. He would make sacrifices for their sin. He would declare them clean before God. He was the only one who could enter the Holy of Holies, the place where God's presence was, to make atonement for the people. The high priest was a big deal, and the very first high priest was Aaron, Moses's brother. But if you remember, Aaron was not perfect. He aided the people in worshipping the golden calf. He stood by while Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock. He was complicit in the failures of God's people and its leaders. And it's because of this that we learn Aaron will not enter

the promised land, and he will instead die in the wilderness. Numbers 20, verse 22. The whole Israelite community set out from Kadesh and came to Mount Hore. At Mount Hore, near the border of Edom, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Maraba. Get Aaron and his son Elyzer and take them up Mount Hore.

Remove Aaron's garments. and put them on his son Elyzer, for Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will die there. Moses did as the Lord commanded. They went up Mount Horn the site of the whole community. Moses removed Aaron's garments and put them on his son Elyzer. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Elyzer came down from the mountain. And when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, all the Israelites mourned for him 30 days. reading this, I'm struck by the way that Aaron dies. As a judgment on his sins, he has brought up a mountain to die.

His priestly clothes are removed from him. Other translations say that Aaron was stripped of his garments. They're given to his son, and then he died on top of this mountain. The death of this first high priest, this man who was supposed to be a symbol of hope for the Israelites, a representative for them, Well, it feels kind of like a big bummer of a moment. Their high priest failed them, and he's stripped of his title and his priestly garments. And yet, we also see that despite Aaron's sin, God provides another high priest. Aaron's son is given these garments.

The role is passed on. God continues to make a way for his people to come before him, to be cleansed and forgiven of their sin. But Elyzer is a human man too. He, like all who will come after him, is broken and under the same curse of sin. Every high priest from Aaron to Caiaphas could only ever be a symbol for the people. A picture that reminded them of the man Moses saw in his vision, the perfect high priest to come and redeem his people. God provided a high priest for his people, even when Aaron failed. but ultimately he always knew that he would provide Jesus, the final high priest who would uphold this royal priesthood for all of eternity. While Aaron and all who came after him failed to be

the high priest that people needed, Jesus came down and was the perfect high priest for all of humanity. Much like the anointing of the high priests, Jesus was anointed in his baptism in the Jordan river. He then went on to heal the people of God, to cleanse them and forgive them of their sins. When he went up to a mountaintop, he was transfigured into a shining figure. He became like the man in Moses' vision. And when he continued to identify himself as the new perfect high priest, the priests of his day stepped in and had him killed. And in doing so, they made a way for Jesus to do what no other high priests could do. He became the perfect, the blameless, the final sacrifice offered to God on behalf of all people. Hebrews 7 tells us, now there have been many of those priests since death

prevented them from continuing an office. But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day for his own sins first and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priest men in all their weakness, but the oath which came after the law appointed the son who has been made perfect forever.

What a beautiful picture of God's provision for his people. I know that oftentimes when I read the Old Testament, things like the high priest and the sacrificial system seem so distant from my day today, that I don't really know what it all means, let alone how it relates to my life. But the office of the high priest was and is such an incredible piece of the big story God is telling throughout Scripture. Jesus will forever be the high priest for his people. He has offered the final sacrifice for our sins and made a way for us to approach the throne of God as righteous, cleansed from our brokenness. But even more than that, in 1 Peter 2.5, we read that all faithful followers of Jesus are like living stones being built into a spiritual house.

They are a royal priesthood. See, when Jesus ascended into heaven in the New Testament, he sent the Holy Spirit to his people. The presence of God that had previously dwelt in the Garden of Eden, then the tabernacle and temple. and then in the person of Jesus would now be present in this world, in the lives of his faithful followers who are filled with the Holy Spirit, which makes all believers little Edens or tabernacles or priests like Jesus. Now, Jesus is the only high priest, but his followers enter into this priesthood with him and partner with him in restoring all of creation and inviting others to follow Jesus and live in the way God created them to fully flourish.

Rather than serving in a temple, we're to give our daily lives over to serving God. Our high priest is calling us to sacrifice our own time and money and energy to spread his presence to all of creation. With everything we say and do, we are to be a royal priesthood, partnering with God in spreading his kingdom of love, justice, and mercy. to the ends of the earth. Just like the Israelites had high priests who failed them, we too live in a broken world. And so this work of spreading God's kingdom, it's not going to be easy.

The brokenness of this world will get in the way. Our sin will get in the way. Our distracted hearts will get in the way. The Israelites looked forward to a high priest that would once and for all reconcile them to God. We look back to Jesus, our perfect high priest who did just that, and we rejoice in the provision of God, while also partnering with Him and looking forward to the day that he will return again and restore all of creation to a new and better Eden. A city where we can dwell with God face to face, where the brokenness of this world is made beautiful, and Jesus is the perfect, everlasting, high priest, and king.

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